International webinar Waag: Technology as a means of preservation

Online, four heritage experts along with moderator Nicole McNeilly conducted an international webinar focused on how technology can be utilised to preserve heritage crafts. During the presentation, the audience learned more about the three Mingei pilot projects, on glassblowing, silk weaving, and mastic growing, which will create tools for heritage craft presentation and guide future research.

The Mingei project platform and different technologies like 3D reconstructions, used to preserve and represent heritage craft, were also demonstrated. Following the presentation was a panel on various topics like the inclusion of AI in craft preservation, how the Mingei project can serve to pass on informal heritage craft knowledge to a broad audience, and how this knowledge of the past can serve to inform our future.

rewatch the webinar

Local session Waag: Fashion as a thread between past and present

At Waag, creative Director Dick van Dijk provided an overview of the Mingei project and introduced the attendees to keynote speaker and renowned fashion designer Antoine Peters’ work, saying that it ‘looks into the past and provides new context’ for the future. During the keynote, Peters discussed several of his projects including his collaboration with the Zeeuws Museum. For the museum, he reimagined a traditional nineteenth-century garment from Zeeland, the yak, as a modern garment: the Jaktrui. In creating the Jaktrui, Peters ‘wanted to communicate something from the past to the now and translate it in my own way’. The zero-waste folding technique was then used for economic reasons, but now is very relevant from a sustainability perspective.

Following his presentation was a workshop on the craft of repairing clothing. This workshop was designed based on the Reflow project aiming to share knowledge on how to rethink, repair, and revalue your wardrobe. During this workshop, attendees were encouraged to rethink items of their own clothing focusing on both aesthetic and technique in clothing repair.

• Rewatch the workshop
• Watch the instruction
• View the photos of the workshop (photo credit: Jimena Gauna)
• An impression of the local sessions from the European partners will be published on the Mingei website.
   

How heritage can shape the future

So how does the Mingei project serve to connect the past, present, and future? Inspired by the Mingei movement in Japan, which originally served as a response to Western mechanisation in the mid 1920s, the Mingei project today focuses on the digitalisation and accessibility of heritage craft, both tangible and intangible.

Through use of modern technologies like interactive Augmented Reality and Mixed Reality, Mingei seeks to tell stories not only about the craft objects themselves, but about the rituals, practice, and knowledge that accompany these objects. The application of modern technology to heritage craft can then serve to build a bridge between the past and present.

In regard to the connection between past and present, Antoine Peters notes that ‘a design or a translation now always has this reference captured in it. So you have these little bridges – in storytelling or in the visual part’. When Peters was researching the yak, he found that no documentation existed detailing its construction proces – namely, how to take one piece of fabric and fold it to create the jak. Instead, he learned the folding technique from 91-year-old craftswoman Mrs. Vos.

This mirrors a challenge that was discovered during the Mingei project: during a glassblowing pilot in Paris, there was no documentation that outlined the movements and rituals of past glassblowers. Similar to the work Peters did to understand the historical process of crafting the yak, those working on the glass pilot had to find alternate methods to learn craft heritage techniques and movements and were able to reverse-engineer steps required for glassblowing. Both Peters and the glass pilot help to further an understanding of the past while contributing valuable knowledge to the future.

Through work like the Mingei project and Peters’ collaboration with the Zeeuws Museum, modern concepts and technologies can be applied to the past in a way that creates bridges between the past and present. When talking about heritage, Peters noted that the past and present cannot be separated; that ‘it’s all connected’. Examining these connections allows us to see the thread that connects the present day with the past and tells us stories that can be leveraged to imagine the future.

Exhibition CNAM Paris

CNAM organised an exhibiton where the worlds of academics and professional activity come together. It is the only higher education establishment dedicated to life-long professional training. A dedicated space at the cathedral which is part of the museum invites you to experience the craft of glassblowing and use actual glassblowing tools.

Local webinar FORTH – Greece

FORTH organised two webinars for Mingei Day (videos are in Greek).

Mingei Day Geneva – Reenacting 3D craft people

But Mingei Day is not over yet. On 9 and 10 July MIRAlab is organising a local session for Mingei Day in Geneva during The Night of Science. The partners main goal is to assure the perennity of certain gestures and attitudes when former people were doing crafts. Through digital simulation, we can preserve the intangible heritage.

Miralab intend to present videos of the “making of” of the digital craft people who are reproducing the gestures of our 3 activities: Glass, Mastic and Silk. As well as the setup of the three pilots.

In the last four years, Waag and nine European partners and craftsmen have experimented in Mingei project by documenting and digitalising crafts, storytelling, interactive Augmented Reality (AR), Mixed Reality (MR) and motion capture.

During this webinar on Mingei Day we would like to share and discuss the results and knowledge we gained. In four online panel discussions, experts from all over Europe will discuss and share their views on how to preserve crafts and how we can keep improving this in the future. During the webinar, participants will also have the opportunity to ask questions online.

Join the conversation! The link to the meeting will be provided to you by email. This event will be recorded.

Programme

16.00 hrs – Welcome Mingei Day – host Nicole McNeilly (Impact Evaluation Advisor Waag)
16.05 hrs – Introduction to Mingei Project (Xenophon Zabulis – Project Coordinator Mingei)
16.15 hrs – Expert panel discussion will cover the following questions:

1. What is the urgency of preserving and documenting crafts?
2. What is the impact for the craft and heritage community, education and future generations?
3. What tech advances are helping us make steps in the preservation and documentation of crafts?
4. How could the Mingei platform be useful for future users to make the impact sustainable?

17.35 hrs – Q&A from participants and recap lessons learned
17.45 hrs – Closing

Panelists

• Xenophon Zabulis – Research Director FORTH, project coordinator Mingei
• Carlo Meghini – Research Director at CNR-ISTI and developer Mingei platform
• Arnaud Dubois – Research Associate at CNAM, social anthropologist Mingei
• Eirini Kaldeli – Researcher and AI expert involved in the Crafted Europeana project
• Marinos Ioannides – UNESCO chair Digital Cultural Heritage at Cyprus University of Technology

Have a look at this episode of Euronews (Europe’s leading international news channel) dedicated to one of the many innovative ideas of Mingei that engage today’s youth with past traditions.  

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement no. 822336.

In museums, objects are often exhibited separately. Tools are shown alongside other tools, and glass objects are exhibited together with other glass objects. How do you tell a coherent and captivating story, connecting the dots between different exhibited objects? In co-creation with CNAM (Conservatoire national des arts et métiers), Waag has been prototyping a digital experience for Mingei’s pilot on glass. Developer Lodewijk Loos takes you along the journey towards the first prototype.

Visiting CNAM

The goal of creating this digital experience at CNAM is to engage visitors and give them insight into the process of glass making. The prototype should work on site (in this case in the context of the museum), and should add to the already available real objects on display. However, the technology used for the prototype should be non-obtrusive to the local situation. Visitors who do not wish to use the technology, should not be bothered by it.

In order to get a grasp of the local context at CNAM, Meia Wippoo and Lodewijk Loos of Waag went to Paris in March 2020. There, we had a fruitful co-creation session with a team of museum professionals from CNAM and conceptualized a rough version of the prototype. In the glass section of the museum, we made some observations that were key to the first version of the prototype.

First of all, the glass objects are exposed in vitrines, they couldn’t be touched or picked up and could not be looked at from all angles. Of course, not being able to pick up objects in a museum is normal. However, as a lot of these objects are tools and utensils, being able to do so would contribute to the understanding of the object. We also know from experience in earlier projects, like meSch, that being able to pick up objects leads to more user engagement.

The next thing we noticed is that some objects were related to other objects that were displayed in different rooms of the museum. For example, the glass tools and a glass product were not in the same room. The reason for this is that there are different ways to classify object. The tools were in the tooling section and the carafe was in a section with artworks. However, these objects are part of the same story that we would like to tell: the process of glass making.

Another observation that we made was that some of the objects key to the story were not on display in the museum, for example a furnace and piece of wet paper were not there.

Augmented reality

As we decided upfront, the prototype should help to get insight in the process of glass making. With these observations, we could translate the story of glass in a more generic story. One could say that in the context of crafts, a general pattern is that objects are used with other objects (for example tools with materials), in different parts of the process. That is what we want our digital experience to give insight in.

We also concluded that the use of augmented reality (AR) technology could be of value for this prototype. With AR, it is possible to create the sense of picking up (virtual representatives of) objects, use them in another room, and show objects that are not physically there.

Mark the process

We returned back home and worked out several concepts. Next, we aggregated common interaction principles from our concepts. Our interaction principles showed similarities to (adventure) games. Adventure games are like a puzzle: you often have to pick up objects, sometimes not yet knowing what for, and use them at another location, sometimes in combination with another object.

One of our concepts focused at the carafe, named “Mark the Process”. This concept would lend itself for this type of adventure-like (mini) game. The central piece in this game would be the various parts and stages of completion of the carafe. This is how the process of making this type of carafe is currently displayed in CNAM. Wouldn’t it be nice if you had pick up the tools associated with this process in the one room, and place them at the right “step” in the other room? We also liked the idea of being able to collect museum objects and take them home for closer inspection.

The use of markers

With this concept in mind, we started implementing a proof of concept as a smartphone app. From previous AR projects, we had experience with the combination of Vuforia (AR framework) and Unity3D (gaming engine). The former is very well integrated in the latter, making it an ideal tool for (at least) prototyping. Vuforia support various ways of augmentation, both marker-based as marker less.

Markers are physical signs that are recognized by the app to instigate interaction. Using markers makes the app less dependent on local lighting conditions, which were not ideal or constant at CNAM. Recognising a marker, instead of an object itself, generally just works better. Additionally, using markers could make it easier for users of our app to see at which locations in the museum they could interact, because they serve as a visual clue. When you’re in a museum with thousands of objects, it is convenient that you can see immediately (without using a device) which ones are interactable. Finally, markers are easier in use. Augmenting an object by placing a marker in front of it is less challenging then having to scan the object and markers make it also easy to place objects in the void. In the longer run, the use of markers helps to accomplish a more generic application for different venues with different content, that allows its content to be authored by curators (as opposed to software developers).

Living room demonstration

Our original intention was to test the prototype at CNAM with random visitors of the museum. But during the development of the app, Covid-19 came around and it became clear that testing the app in a public venue with a real audience would not be possible anytime soon. Furthermore, the Covid-19 situation might even change the way we design things permanently. For example, it might have become undesirable to have devices in a museum that are handed out to visitors or to have installations with touch screens. An AR app that people can run on their own phone should be relative safe and convenient.

With this in mind, we slightly changed our prototyping strategy and made the decision to create a living room demonstration. Originally, the prototype was meant to include virtual copies of the museum objects. By the lack of museum objects in the developer’s house, we used general building tools and convincing 3D models from online repositories.

The prototype demonstrates a few of the principles. The user can pick up object and place them back again, objects can be collected in a treasure chest for later use, objects can be used with other objects by using them with a marker next to that other object, referenced media for the collected object is available as background information, information overlays (giving hints) can be shown and a collection of objects can be used to make simple puzzles. As a gamification element, the user receives badges after completing specific tasks or reaching certain goals.

Next steps

This simple approach allows for a lot flexibility to create puzzle-like games. For example, a timeline game could be created by changing the physical placement of the markers into another linear layout. One could also imagine having different kinds of visual markers for different kind of interactions. One type of marker could indicate that an object can be picked up, and another marker could indicate that an object can be used at that spot.

At this point it is also interesting to think about how these principles can be applied at the other pilot locations. Part of the Mingei project is a pilot in Chios (Greece) on the craft of harvesting and processing Mastic from the mastic tree. Would it be feasible to apply the prototype at the local situation over there by augmenting the Mastic tools and placing markers on and around a real tree? There is still enough work to be done and questions to be answered towards a generic AR application for on-site craft experiences!

Written by Lodewijk Loos (Waag)

When Thibaut Nussbaumer fell from a horse in his teenage years, he had no idea at the time that it would set him on a path to becoming a distinguished member of an exciting new wave of artists working in one of the more elusive craft-making niches: glassblowing. His arm broken from the fall, Thibaut received doctor’s orders to employ his hands with some tactile tasks in the service of regaining his dexterity. As well as practising piano, one of his tasks was learning to work with clay, which instilled the spark of a love in him of working with tangible crafts. Waag’s Harry Reddick spoke to Nussbaumer, founder of glass atelier TiPii in Toulouse, about his love for crafts and the importance of passing on his knowledge and skills.

The magic of glass

After his fall from a horse, during the end of his schooling years, Nussbaumer’s class was taken to a one-week glass workshop at CIAV. This is where the spark for crafts blossomed into a more consuming passion. “We were playing little designers,” he tells. “We were making sketches, which the craftsmen realised. They were bringing our sketches to life. This was extremely exciting [to me] because I got bored with the theoretical stuff we were doing before that point. I was missing something real. And glassblowing was pretty real.”

Having reached a crossroads upon finishing his secondary education, Thibaut pursued that creation of something real in glassblowing. He signed up at CERFAV, in Vannes-le-Châtel; one of the three glassblowing educational institutions that exist in France. His four-year learning there was buttressed with a practical and theoretical internship at the Baccarat crystal factory near Nancy.

In these educational vocations, he managed to tap into a rich vein of knowledge and tradition of glass-blowing in France, which in itself is a singular strand of a much more ancient and globally-utilised craft, with evidence abounding of decorative glass from millennia past. For Thibaut, the way that this tradition has evolved and adapted to different historical and locational contexts is part of its magic.

“There are a few different aesthetic ways to work with glass. There is a Scandinavian wave, a Venetian style, and different aesthetic in the Czech Republic too. I travelled and grabbed a lot of details of how they are working, how they are using tools and how they are creating and working with their inspirations. Glassblowing is extremely playful and really sensual, with soft curves… it’s really subtle and soft.”

Learning curve

Glassblowing itself requires a furnace in order to melt glass, with which the glassblower uses a blowpipe to shape the molten glass. Thibaut spoke of some of the perceived barriers to entry into the field of glassblowing being the cost, including the cost of the furnace and the natural gas to continually heat it. However, the craft in itself can be enjoyed by people completely new to it, in much the same way as Thibaut first experienced in his youth, provided there is an expert and the materials to facilitate the process.

Past this initial entry point however, the craft requires a much more sustained and detailed approach to both learning technique and practising that dexterity. Thibaut said he wasn’t happy with what he’d made for his first five years of learning. Having put in the years working on his technical prowess, Thibaut is now able to spend more time on the ‘poetry and the soul’ inherent in the pieces rendered from the glassblowing process.

Blow It Yourself

In an attempt to bring both the romantic inspiration of glass and its technical tradition to a wider audience beyond the niche of the academic, Thibaut has founded TiPii Atelier, a glass workshop in Toulouse, together with Patricia Motte, a friend from CERFAV. One of the unusual features of the TiPii Atelier is this focus on making the craft more accessible. He even runs BIY (Blow It Yourself) sessions offering basic glassblowing lessons where their expertise helps the attendees (both children and adults) create simple blown glass items. In this way, Thibaut hopes to address the lack of knowledge about glassblowing in France, both in terms of the required resources and the methodology underpinning it, with the latter being something that teaching allowed him to personally understand on a ‘deeper level’.

“Glassblowing is extremely rare, and I felt I had to save and pass on this precious knowledge,” Thibaut explains. “This workshop at TiPii is the only one in 100 kilometers around, so my idea was to bring glasswork into an urban frame. That’s something that is really new, as small workshops involve people and help show people how it’s made. Quite a lot of people were searching to find out how to get involved in glasswork, and this is something we can now show them how to do together. There is a soul in such things, and everybody can feel it, you just have to offer them the opportunity to understand it and to see it. This is my job, to share it with as many people as I can.”

Many of the children who came along to these workshops ended up returning on a monthly basis, and have since become familiar with the names of the tools and techniques, and have ended up passing on word of their experience to other children in school or in their social life. In such a way, the same spark that encouraged Thibaut to return to the life of craft as a youth is being spread to a new generation, simultaneously returning the craft of glassblowing to the wider community.

Thibaut found that he took the art of working glass into his identity. “It is part of me, glass belongs to my life now.” Perhaps some of these children who were given their first taste of the beauty and the intricacies of glassblowing will take it with them into their life, becoming part of the world of heritage that glass represents.

Written by Harry Reddick (Waag)

About movement sonification

Sonification is defined as the use of non-speech audio to convey information (Kramer 2016, 185–221), and the technique of rendering sound in response to data and interactions (Hermann et al. 2011, 1).

Bevilacqua et al. (2016, 385) describe the benefits of movement sonification in their paper as follows: “Movement sonification is considered the auditory feedback that is being created in relation to a movement and/or gesture performed. The idea of using auditory feedback in interactive systems has recently gained momentum in different research fields. In applications such as movement rehabilitation, sport training or product design, the use of auditory feedback can complement visual feedback. It reacts faster than the visual system and can continuously be delivered without constraining the movements.”

As such, sonification is currently used in a wide variety of fields, such as “driving a car or riding a bike blind, directly finding one’s way in an unfamiliar smoky environment or being able to improve the quality of one’s gestures in real-time” (Parseihian et al. 2016, 1).

In particular, movement sonification systems appear promising for educating complex techniques and skills in providing users with auditory feedback of their own movements. The purpose is guidance for improving movement performance during a learning process and the application can vary.

So, why researchers did put sound on purpose? Hermann et al. (2011, 3) describe that “the motivation to use sound to understand the world (…) comes from many different perspectives (…). Thus, the benefits of using the auditory system as a primary interface for data transmission are derived from its complexity, power, and flexibility.” In other words, the reason of distinguishing sound as relevant to communicate information is found in its inherent feature to have a resonance to one listener and diversity in the way it would be employed.

Considering that movement sonification can guide a user to reproduce an expert gesture, this method is proved suitable while focusing on enhancement of the learning experience and improving the movement performance.

The use case of glassblower’s craft

In the case of glassblowing, the key challenge is the development of a system that can at first track the human body, recognize the gestures that the person is executing and, in the end, compare them with the expert’s gestures and provide sound feedback. The sonification gives a motivation to the user to complete all his tasks/gestures by also reaching to a musical goal. Following the tempo of the sounds is also a helpful feedback on how well the gestures have been performed and in which way they need to be improved.

The researchers of Armines are currently applying movement sonification for vocational training as the most compatible method, taking into consideration the particularities of the craftsmanship. The motion capture of experts and their gestural skills related to glassblowing use case is getting implemented in collaboration of Armines and Cerfav, the National Innovation Center for Glass in France.

For this purpose, recording sessions of the gestural know-how of the glassblower are being organised within Cerfav with the use of high precision motion capture technologies. More precisely, this is done with a special suit equipped with sensors that the expert glassblower wears throughout the sessions of recordings. The data recorded are categorised, so it is specified which gestures are performed, where one gesture stops and another starts, and what are the tools used. This is what we call the “gesture vocabulary”.

The next step is to learn the gestures of a glassblower through gesture recognition and sonic feedback, where a user will try to reproduce the gestures of the professional glassblower. Whenever there is a deviation between the craftsman’s gesture and the apprentice’s gesture, a sound feedback is provided based on the pitch fluctuation of a predefined sound. In this way, the apprentice perceives the quality of the sound and knows if they performed a gesture in the same way as the expert, and if they have to repeat and correct the gesture.

In the video, the installation user is asked to perform one by one the gestures that the routine of the glassblower consists of. The sonification gives motivation to the user to complete all his tasks/gestures by also reaching a musical goal.

First, the user is invited to observe the expert gestures, to hear the correct sonification result of his movements. This is what we call here “the original sounds”. A mapping has been done between motion parameters and acoustic features: The tempo modality is affected by the movement of the right and left hand in the x-axis, while the panning of the sound is affected by the movement on the y-axis.

The gestures of the installation user are being recognized and also sonified. The quality of the sonification – in terms of how close the tempo or the pitch is to the original sounds – is the result of how well the gestures have been performed and recognized. The user is able to perform the gestures one by one, until he reaches the final gesture, thus the creation of the glass carafe. The sounds mapped to each one of the gestures are layered creating a complete music piece at the end of the gestural performance.

The learning process as an enjoyable user experience

Within this learning process developed in Mingei, one apprentice acquires the necessary skillset to perform and reproduce glassblower’s gestures and gradually improve their performance and technical prowess. Furthermore, the process itself is a positive enjoyable experience that brings pleasure and motivation as well as meaning and purpose for learning this craft.

Learning by receiving auditory feedback offers incentives for developing a natural and a non-intrusive experience, that informs the user in real time about their performance and gives them the stimulus to go ahead. Considering also that the end use for Mingei is setting up an installation within a museum, it is desirable that the experience of the visitor has a twist of entertainment and cultural engagement.

Encouraging the new uses of sound can prove to be an excellent, emergent method of embodied learning through learning by doing.

 Written by Ioanna Thanou (Armines)

References

As part of the Mingei project, the Musée des Arts et Métiers is making a copy of a carafe dated in 1842, made by Georges Bontemps at his crystal factory of Choisy-le-Roi in France. This work is documented by an anthropologist of the Laboratory “Histoire des Techno-Sciences en Société” of CNAM. The recording of the glass master’s gestures using a sensor suit and different cameras is done by ARMINES Research Center in Paris and the Institute of Computer Science FORTH in Heraklion, Greece.

During the month of May, the Centre Européen de Recherches et de Formation aux Arts Verriers (CERFAV) already studied the re-enactement process of the carafe. In September and October, the teams worked together to reproduce the carafe and record the actions necessary to craft the 1842 Bontemps’ carafe.

The manufacturing of the carafe

The master glassmaker Jean-Pierre Mateus and Dominique Jamis, former head of the hot-glass workshop at CERFAV, experimented with several techniques to assimilate the old carafe manufacturing process. More than twenty carafes were made before reaching a model similar to the original one. The manufacturing steps were as follows:

1. Blowing of the body: first step of the manufacturing pr
   ocess, the glassblower picks the glass in the furnace and shape it by his breath, the gravity and his hands to create the desired body of the carafe.
2. Laying the ” leg and foot ” of the carafe: with the help of the assistant, this step involves sticking two new glass parts to the body of the carafe by returning it and deposing two very specific amount of glass to be able to shape it with tools.
3. Crafting the neck: with a pincer, the glassmaster stretches the upper part of the body to made it identical to the original model.
4. Laying the glass cord: the assistant comes to deposit a fine tub between the body and the neck and the glassmaster shapes it while the glass is still hot.
5. Cutting the beak of the carafe: with a chisel, the glassmaster opens the neck of the carafe to desired shape and forms a beak.
6. Laying the handle: the assistant brings hot glass and puts it on the beak of the carafe, then he stretches it to create a tube that the glassmaster attaches to the body with the desired shape.

Two tools had to be specially created during the re-enactment process. First, a clapper in wood consisting of two rectangular pieces of wood joined at one end by a leather hinge and an aperture in one of the pieces of wood to squeeze a blob of glass in order to form the foot. Second, an experimental tool in soft metal created by the glassmaster to be able to make the cord between the body and the neck as thin as it is in the original carafe.

Ethnographic observation

During this entire process, the anthropologist Arnaud Dubois has conducted an ethnography of this re-enactment consisting of an observation of the working activities, the documentation of these activities with photographs and films, and different formal and informal interviews of the two craftsmen. One of the methodologies used during this research interest has been to observe and document the “geography of the workshop” to understand the relation between the body, the tools, the matter and the space when the craft is performed. Using the general frameworks of the “operational sequence” as conceptualised by the French anthropologist André Leroi-Gourhan in 1965, this method helps the researcher to understand the complex interaction between the craft practitioners gestural and sensitive actions, the active role of matter and tools, and the ‘choreographic’ dimension of movement in the workshop as a fundamental characteristic of a craft practice. Because craft knowledge is mostly non-verbal, this methodology is very useful to define and document the technical gesture of a craft.

While the operational sequence has been understood by the anthropologist, members of ARMINES laboratory equipped the glassmakers with sensors to record their key gestures and monitor their breath. Then, five cameras, installed in the workshop by the engineers of FORTH, were used to document the interaction between the master glassmakers and complete the recording of their actions.

Multidisciplinary collaboration

The collaboration between craftsmen, research-engineers and a social scientist permits to understand, reproduce, describe and document the tangible and intangible know-how embedded in the heritage artefact of the CNAM’s collection. The multiple discussions and several experimentations between these people from different background and disciplines create a deep and new understanding of the carafe. An interesting thing of this collaboration has been also to help everyone to have a reflexive approach of his own work and methodology. The craftsman through his collaboration with the computer scientists rethought his technical gesture in a new way. The anthropologist who is working with the engineers thinks differently about the ethnographic methodology he could use to study technical gestures. And the research-engineers collaborating with an ethnographer need to be more precise and exhaustive in their digitisation.

In November, Arnaud Dubois will go to FORTH to work with the technological partners on the various materials collected. This collaboration between researchers in computer science and anthropology researchers aims to achieve a most accurate and realistic digital reproduction.

Written by CNAM

To digitise and transfer knowledge about the (in)tangible aspects of crafts; that is the goal of our European project Mingei. Already from that single sentence, a lot of questions arise.

How do we define the term ‘craft’? What is considered a craft, compared to art or industry? Who has the knowledge and expertise on a craft, and who do we need to transfer this knowledge to? How do you identify and capture intangible aspects of crafts? How can you digitise knowledge and expertise that is so inherently physical? And what is the best way to transfer knowledge to specific audiences, in specific contexts?

Silk weaving, mastic harvesting and glass blowing

We have to understand that these questions can be answered in many different ways, because they can all be influenced by the context in which they are asked. For that reason, Mingei is an interesting project. It is based on three pilots, each connected to a different craft, to research these questions.

Early July, I got to go to Paris for a day to visit the Musée des Arts et Métiers, that is hosting the pilot on glass blowing. My main objective; to get to know the context and scope of their research and design questions in the Mingei project, so that we can find the best way to support them in their process.

The challenge of co-creation

In the context of each pilot, we will introduce a co-creation process to help research the questions. Waag is responsible for that introduction and will support and coach these craft partners in that process. The craft partner will host activities with local craftsmen, museum staff, stakeholders, visitors and other people with relevant knowledge and expertise that will contribute to shaping the content for digitalisation, and the conceptualisation of solutions for knowledge transfer.

Co-creation is a new approach for most of the project partners, which means it requires some changes in their regular practice. Change is always difficult, especially when you are working in a big institution, where you have to deal with many factors outside of your control. So, the best way for me to support the partner, is to better understand their context. And since there is a direct and quick train from Amsterdam to Paris, it was an easy decision to go visit the Musée des Arts et Métiers and see for myself.

Eye for context

During my visit in Paris, I got to see the set-up of the museum and the way a variety of crafts we’re already displayed. This helped me understand the possibilities and limitations the museum had to deal with. I also got a bit of insight into the day-to-day practice of the museum staff and the type of visitors they would cater to. I was able to do some small exercises with both the curators and the educational staff, so that we would better understand the ambitions that were floating around in the museum, in relation to the Mingei project. All these things are important to know when setting up a co-creation process. The more aware you are of your ‘limiting’ factors and scope, the better you are able to find the space for experimentation.

It was a fruitful visit, both for me, representing Waag, and for the museum – since we both have a better understanding of what we might be able to achieve in the project. In December, we will visit the museum again. By that time, they should have some nice co-creation sessions under their belt, and I am looking forward to their new insights and ideas.

Written by Meia Wippoo, Waag